Sad news to all of us here in the October Country as reports came in this morning that legendary writer Ray Bradbury had died at the age of 91 after a long battle with an unreported illness. Fans may know him for such works as Something Wicked This Way Comes,Fahrenheit 451, The Halloween Tree, The Martian Chronicles and countless short story collections. His tale, The Fog Horn, was adapted into the creature feature The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. He adapted sixty-five of his stories for television’s The Ray Bradbury Theater, and won an Emmy for his teleplay of The Halloween Tree, which I feel should run every year at Halloween.

From the L.A. Times:

Ray Bradbury, the writer whose expansive flights of fantasy and vividly rendered space-scapes have provided the world with one of the most enduring speculative blueprints for the future, has died. He was 91… he was author of more than 27 novels and story collections and more than 600 short stories. Some say he singlehandedly helped to move the genre [of science fiction] into the realm of literature… Ray Douglas Bradbury was born Aug. 22, 1920, in Waukegan, Ill., to Leonard Spaulding Bradbury and the former Esther Marie Moberg. As a child he soaked up the ambiance of small-town life — wraparound porches, fireflies and the soft, golden light of late afternoon — that would later become a hallmark of much of his fiction.

Throughout his life, Bradbury liked to recount the story of meeting a carnival magician, Mr. Electrico, in 1932. At the end of his performance Electrico reached out to the twelve-year-old Bradbury, touched the boy with his sword, and commanded, Live forever! Bradbury later said, “I decided that was the greatest idea I had ever heard. I started writing every day. I never stopped.”